SACRAMENTO, Calif. – The Eastern Washington University women's basketball team cruised to a 73-61 victory over Sacramento State this afternoon (Jan. 30) in Sacramento, Calif. The Eagles never trailed in the contest and shot 52.8 percent overall with nine three-pointers in the bounce-back victory.
 
Both Grace Kirscher and Maisie Burnham led the team in scoring with 19 points each. Kennedy Dickie was close behind with nine points and eight rebounds. Freshman Nuria Cunill, in her second career start, grabbed nine boards to pace EWU.
 
"I'm really proud of our team. I thought we played extremely hard and had great effort and energy from everybody, especially on the defensive end," said head coach Wendy Schuller. "We are a young team, so to be able to make adjustments and bounce back the way we did is a great sign of growth for us."
 
The first quarter saw three ties before the Eagles exploded on an 11-0 run to build a 19-8 lead. Eastern Washington shot 58.3 percent (7-12) in the first quarter and made five of its last six field goal attempts to lead 19-10 at the end of the frame.
 
The offensive momentum carried into the second quarter as Eastern Washington used two separate runs of 8-0 and 7-0 to lead by 20 points, 39-19. However, the Eagles then went cold and didn't score for the final 4:20 of the half. Despite a 5-0 run from the Hornets, EWU still led 39-24 heading into the locker room. Eastern Washington shot 57.7 percent (15-26) overall and were also 6-of-11 (54.5%) from three-point range in the first twenty minutes of action.
 
The third quarter was low scoring, with EWU out-pacing the Hornets 15-to-14. A 6-0 spurt towards the end of the frame that was highlighted by a three from Dickie helped the Eagles take a 54-38 lead into the final 10 minutes.
 
The Hornets came out and swiftly outscored the Eagles 7-2 in the first minute and a half to cut the deficit to 56-45 and forced an Eastern Washington timeout. Sacramento State would out-score EWU 23-19 in the fourth quarter, but it wasn't enough as Eastern Washington won 73-61.
 
WIN-LOSS RECORDS: Eastern Washington improves to 6-9 on the year and an even 5-5 in Big Sky Conference action. Sacramento State falls to 1-12 and 1-9. The two squads split the series for the second-straight season, and Eastern has now won six out of the last seven contests in Sacramento.
 
TOP PERFORMANCES: Grace Kirscher scored 19 points on 8-of-14 from the field and 3-of-6 from three-point range. She also recorded four rebounds, a block and two steals.
 
Freshman Maisie Burnham scored in double figures for the 10^th-straight contest, also adding 19 points. She was 8-of-13 from the field, 1-of-1 from three-point range and a perfect 2-of-2 from the charity stripe. She also set new career-highs in assists (5) and blocks (2) while grabbing two steals and four rebounds.
 
Kennedy Dickie added nine points, eight rebounds, two assists and two steals. In her second career start, Nuria Cunill led the Eagles with nine rebounds. The freshman also had two blocks and a steal to go with five points.
 
Aaliyah Alexander recorded eight points, four assists, four rebounds and two steals. Jenna Dick also scored eight points with two three-pointers.
 
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE: The Eagles shot over 50 percent from the field in all quarters except the fourth when they shot 46.7 percent. Overall, Eastern Washington had its best offensive effort of the season, making 28-of-53 from the field to shoot 52.8 percent on the day. From three-point range, the Eagles were 9-of-20 and also made eight of their 10 free throw attempts. Sixteen of their 28 field goals were assisted.
 
Eastern Washington also locked down defensively, limiting the Hornets to under 37 percent accuracy in all four quarters. Overall, Sacramento State was 24 of 72 (33.3%) from the field, 6-of-34 from three-point range (17.6%) and 7-of-8 from the free throw line.
 
As a team, the Eagles set a new season-high with eight blocks. It was the first time the program collected that many blocks since Dec. 28, 2019 against Weber State. For the second-straight contest, EWU also recorded 13 steals which is a season-best.
 
UP NEXT: Eastern Washington splits between home and the road next week when they take on Idaho. The Eagles host the Vandals on Thursday, Feb. 4 at 6:05 p.m. inside Reese Court with the game broadcasted locally on SWX. On Saturday, Feb. 6, Eastern makes the trip to Moscow for another matchup with Idaho. Tip-off for that contest is set for 12 p.m. PT on Pluto TV Ch. 1060.